Guest column: The case for new nuclear power plants

There are a number of compelling reasons for the U.S. — and Michigan in particular — to build a new generation of nuclear power plants. Simply put, nuclear power is the key to a productive economy.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that the nation’s electricity consumption will grow 26 percent by 2030, requiring an additional 258,000 megawatts of generating capacity. While coal is and will remain a major source of electric power, the uncertainty of how carbon emissions will be regulated or taxed should lead us towards increased use of nuclear power.

Despite a virtual moratorium on nuclear plant construction in the U.S. during the past 30 years, nuclear power accounts for 21.5 percent of Michigan’s electricity and 20 percent of the nation’s power.

The U.S. is still the largest producer of nuclear-generated power worldwide. However, there have been no new construction starts since 1977, with the result that almost all our nuclear power generation comes from reactors completed between 1967 and 1990.

Michigan has four nuclear power plants but more are needed.

As one might expect, there have been significant improvements in the technology for nuclear energy production and disposal of nuclear waste over the last three decades.

While the U.S. pioneered the way in nuclear power, with Westinghouse designing the first pressurized water reactor which operated from 1960 to 1992, other countries have taken advantage of the limitations which have been placed on our nuclear power program to surpass us in reactor construction.

France, for example, uses nuclear power for more than three-fourths of its electricity needs, and has become the world’s largest exporter of nuclear electricity due to its low generating costs.

The French have been very active in developing nuclear technology, with reactors, fuel products, and recycling nuclear waste now a major export. About 17 percent of France’s electricity is produced using recycled nuclear fuel.

It is time for the U.S. to return to the forefront in developing nuclear power technology.

Our country has a great deal of expertise in the design, use, and construction of small nuclear power reactors (SMRs) that have a modular design and can be added incrementally to increase power generation as the need arises. Such reactors can be built in factories and shipped to power generating sites.

There is no reason why the U.S. could not become a leader in small modular reactor technology as well as other aspects of nuclear power such as used-fuel recycling.

According to a study by the Energy Policy Institute, the manufacture and installation of a prototype 100-megawatt modular reactor would create about 7,000 jobs, with another 375 jobs for its operation.

Under one scenario for high growth, domestic SMR manufacturing and construction would add 255,000 jobs annually to the U.S. economy.

Oxford Economics, an energy consulting firm, estimated the impact on employment from the construction of 50 new conventional light-water reactors by 2030, along with 20 advanced high-temperature gas-cooled reactors, 12 fast-spectrum reactors, and three used-fuel recycling facilities.

The company estimates this would create 75,000 manufacturing jobs, 100,000 construction jobs, and 100,000 indirect jobs.

Despite the fact that ground has been broken for four new nuclear plants in the U.S., excessive regulation at all levels of government is slowing the development of nuclear power in the U.S.

As one official involved in the federal approval of construction permits for nuclear power plants remarked to me at a conference, if five people were killed in an accident in a nuclear facility, the political uproar would greatly exceed the reaction to 30 miners killed in a coal mining accident.

Although nuclear power in the U.S. has an excellent safety record, with not a single serious mishap since the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island plant, safety remains an issue that has slowed nuclear power’s growth.

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By contrast, China now has 13 nuclear power plants in operation, with more than 25 under construction, which will give China more than a tenfold increase in nuclear generating capacity by 2020, and a further increase of two-and-a-half times in its nuclear capacity by 2030.

In addition to its employment benefits, nuclear energy produces electricity without the attendant carbon emissions that come from burning fossil fuels.

Just maintaining the current nuclear generation would mean reducing future U.S. emissions by 450 million tons of carbon dioxide per year.

The U.S. can improve its environment and employment situation by removing regulatory obstacles to the new generation of nuclear power plants which would allow us to become a leader in 21st century power generation.

Gary Wolfram is the William Simon Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Hillsdale College.